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CITYWIDE HOUSING MEETING WEDNESDAY Everybody knows how bad the Bloomberg years were for our communities. Despite building "affordable housing," our former mayor plunged us into the city’s worst housing crisis with a record number of people sleeping in shelters and paying unsustainable rent burdens. What we do in the near future will determine whether you have to be a millionaire to live in New York City.Mayor deBlasio has promised a departure from Bloomberg's failed housing policies, but you can be sure that real estate moguls and landlords will do their best to stop him. Let's capitalize on the progressive moment and rebuild the tenant movement to preserve affordable housing, responsibly build new affordable housing, and house the homeless.Organizations are invited to a meeting hosted by Community Voices Heard, Make the Road NY, Met Council on Housing, NY Communities for Change, and VOCAL-NY.

Some say New York could relieve high rents by removing rent regulations. And other people say the world is flat.
By Peter Moskos | Friday, Jan 24, 2014
Interesting excerpt:
"According to 2011 data, 93 percent of rent-stabilized buildings (and 94.5 percent of all residential buildings) turn a profit. The average rent-stabilized building generates a monthlyprofitof $400 per apartment. On top of this most buildings appreciate over time.
Nobody is forced to own a rent-stabilized residential building, yet investors continue to buy these buildings. Why? Because rent-stabilized buildings make money. Large residential buildings are often owned by investor groups who care only about profit. If these groups could make more money elsewhere, they would. But it just so happens that New York's large rental buildings—even rent-stabilized—are a fabulous low-risk investment.
Of course if rent r…

Because of vacancy destabilization and gentrification, more affordable apartments have been lost than gained in the past 12 years. Read the Community Service Society report, "What New Yorkers Want From the New Mayor: An Affordable Place to Live" by Tom Waters and Victor Bach. If the State Legislature won't repeal vacancy destabilization, we need home rule so politicians accountable to renters can do it.